Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Canadian Gaming Summit - Wagering Conference

The Second Standardbred Wagering Conference has been announced. It is to be held in Windsor, across the river from Detroit. Too bad it was not held in football season as I am pretty sure delegates could show up a day early and get Lions tickets for a donation of a canned ham. C'est la vie, no Lions games this April.

There are some interesting topics this year which are sure to be full tilt.

No Holds Barred:Bettors take on racetrack execs, tell it like it is for customers of harness racing and offer suggestions for the future of racing.

If some people I know at the track are invited there is a good chance there will be profanity. Horseplayers yell at TV screens. What in the heck are they gonna yell to a real live person? :)

True Confessions:Exploring the industry’s systemic issues that prevent true progress in harness racing and exploring a new funding model that would benefit racetracks and horse people. Can we resolve the dysfunctional issues and move forward?

With all the acronyms in racing I think they'd need more than an hour just to introduce themselves. Should be interesting.

Outpacing the RunnersHow harness racing can regain former customers that have turned to thoroughbred racing.

This one will be pretty cool I think.

So, some nice topics, which should yield some chatter. One good thing about the above program is that last years panels have been actually working on change. This year represents year two where updates on the proposed changes will occur. Let's hope they are changes for the better.

5 comments:

that's pretty marrow-sighted if they are looking at only chasing those players who have gone to thoroughbreds. What about the ones who have left completely or are more interested in other levels of gambling entertainment? If they only chase those who have gone to the gallops, you're not going to see anyone under 50 at the track...

I think that is only one section. The other ones tackle some of those issues.

There is a topic on their work on getting a harness betting exchange going. What do you think about harness racing on a betting exchange Scott? It seems like there is some volume on the Aussie harness races on betfair.

Having a separate betting exchange will be just as mediocre as having individual tote pools for each track.

Economy of scale, tens of thousands of customers, the option to bet on other sports/races at the same place and the technology to operate it are key factors. It can't possibly work. It's like having a tote for sport. Beancounters and people with no idea about gambling (other than they lose, so therefore being on other side of the counter must make them rich) think a sports parimutuel pool is akin to a licence to print money. But two-option betting is all about price. Not even the village idiot would bet on a Vegas spread on his hometown team with a payout of -1000. Totes survive on racing because it is multi-runner. Adn for that reason they can only work on racing.

Aus harness racing goes ok on Betfair, NZ harness wil go even better if they ever strike the right deal. But this is because the whole country can see these races adn they can bet on every track with the same company. If I had to have accts with five different companies/tracks to follow a day's racing, I'd rather just give up and bet on basketball...

Seriously, I'm available for consulting work if you want anyone to explain this in a nice thick report at $1000 per day.. :)